Everton ace Leon launches heart campaign at University

Everton football star Leon Osman dropped into Edge Hill University to back a national campaign to reduce the number of undiagnosed heart conditions in young people. 

The dynamic midfielder was supporting the CRY Philips Test My Heart Tour 09, the first initiative of its kind to offer free screenings to people aged 14-35 at 12 destinations across England.

More than 200 Edge Hill University staff, students and Ormskirk residents took the opportunity to have their heart tested for free in a mobile unit set up outside the University's main entrance.

The screenings were in memory of Everton youth team footballer and junior international John Marshall who died suddenly from a heart defect aged just 16.

They were organised by charity CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young), health and well-being company Philips and John's mother Maureen who works in the University's popular Grinders café.

Maureen raised an impressive £2000 by encouraging students and staff to part with loose change in various collection boxes on the University's Ormskirk campus. 

Friends and family raised a further £1000 through a series of sponsored walks and an additional £250 came from a fun day organised by Sporting Edge.

Philips donated £3000 along with the high-tech mobile screening unit equipped with ECG and ECHO facilities.   The total of more than £6000 paid for all the screenings carried out on Monday and Tuesday this week.

Maureen Marshall said:

"I am absolutely overwhelmed at the response we have had - 210 screenings over two days.  It was important for me to bring the screenings to Ormskirk in memory of John and to ensure what happened to him didn't happen to anyone else at Edge Hill or in my local community."

Maureen says she will continue to fundraise at the University for John's memorial fund, the proceeds of which pay for vital ECG equipment in schools and leisure centres.

John died in July 1995 just as he was about to start work with Everton.

Every week 12 young people lose their lives to sudden cardiac death in the UK.

The national tour aims to test more than 3,000 young people for heart conditions that could prove fatal if they went undetected and untreated.